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Dessert

Iced Rice Cream

A chilled dessert made from cooked rice, eggs, sugar, whipped cream, and orange flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Iced Rice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Cook the rice in boiling water until tender.

  3. Press the cooked rice through a fruit press or wire sieve back into the saucepan.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light.

  2. Mix the beaten yolks with the rice.

  3. Remove from heat when thick.

  4. Flavor with orange.

  5. Cool the mixture.

Freeze and serve

  1. Pack the mixture in a freezer until nearly frozen.

  2. Stir in the whipped cream.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Serve with oranges.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Cooked and pressed, it adds body and a smooth, creamy texture to the base.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the mixture as it heats, and whites lighten the final texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the dessert softer and scoopable.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and trapped air for a rich, light, creamy texture.
Orange
Adds aromatic citrus flavor and bright acidity.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when thick. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but overheating can scramble them into grainy curds, while underheating leaves the custard thin and unstable once frozen. Watching for a thick, coating texture gives the smoothest base.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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